BEETHOVEN PIANOFORTE SONATAS
Played by EDWARD ISAACS
Sonata in D Minor, Op. 31, No. 2 (concluded)
Allegretto
First Movement (Allegro con brio), Sonata in C, Op. 53 (Tho ' Waldstein ' Sonata)
THE Count Ferdinand Ernst Gabriel Waldstein was one of Beethoven's earliest friends, knowing him from his youthful years in Bonn, before ho moved to Vienna. The Count was himself no mean musician, pianist, and composer, and Beethoven made a set of Variations for four hands at the pianoforte, on an air composed by the Count.
The great Sonata dedicated to him was composed, so far as we know, in 1804, when Beethoven was living in his country quarters at Dobling. After one of his outbreaks of violent temper, ho had left von Breuning in dudgeon, and, stopping first at Baden, had gone back to his old resort at Dobling. The Sonata originally included a much longer slow movement than this present one, but Beethoven afterwards took that out and had it published as a separate piece ; it is known now as the ' Andante Favori.' As it stands, the Sonata begins with a big Allegro movement. Then an introductory Adagio leads to a Rondo at moderate speed, and a Prestissimo closes it with a sense of real excitement and hurry.